iOS 10 first beta says “bye” to Game Center, app unlikely to return for official release

posted by Milen Y. / Jun 14, 2016, 6:38 AM

iOS 10 first beta says “bye” to Game Center, app unlikely to return for official release

Apple has finally decided to pull the plug on the Game Center app, after years of mulling it over. The app is nowhere to be seen in the first iOS 10 beta which was made available yesterday, and it's unlikely that it will be returning for the official release this fall.

After ditching the skeuomorphic green felt casino design for Game Center in iOS 7, Apple was considering to remove the app all together in time for iOS 8, but instead introduced the so called “White Screen of Death” game crashing bug, which was later fixed in the first beta version of iOS 9.3.2.

Apple's idea is to let game developers implement the social features of Game Center into their games directly, instead of relying on a rarely used standalone app. That's where Apple's universal GameKit framework comes to play. Developers for example, could implement the GameKit leaderboard feature in their respective game, without forcing players to open a separate app just to check scores. That's cool, but it might mean the end of your checking your friends stats across all games... if you were doing it anyway.

via: TouchArcade

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11 Comments

1. KingSam

Posts: 1451; Member since: Mar 13, 2016

I never used game centet. The only thing it's useful for is to save game progress and multiplayer games work fine without it

posted on Jun 14, 2016, 6:59 AM 0

2. phonearenarocks

Posts: 606; Member since: Mar 26, 2015

Wow! Google Play Games ehhhhh! Has been better implemented huh!! something which works?? Innovation thought differently!

posted on Jun 14, 2016, 7:04 AM 0

7. NexusKoolaid

Posts: 493; Member since: Oct 24, 2011

Judging by your writing style I'd say you certainly think differently. What exactly are you trying to say?

posted on Jun 14, 2016, 10:01 AM 3

3. Wiencon

Posts: 2278; Member since: Aug 06, 2014

Great!

posted on Jun 14, 2016, 7:23 AM 1

4. Eraman

Posts: 162; Member since: Dec 13, 2015

The best thing they done ever :D It's not a useful app and the same thing for many apple apps.

posted on Jun 14, 2016, 7:54 AM 1

5. libra89

Posts: 2281; Member since: Apr 15, 2016

Sweet, one less annoying app to deal with!

posted on Jun 14, 2016, 8:23 AM 0

6. IgorEfremenko

Posts: 108; Member since: Nov 30, 2011

And one less ugly icon.

posted on Jun 14, 2016, 9:35 AM 0

8. jeroome86

Posts: 2314; Member since: Apr 12, 2012

Not every game use this anyways. Got tired of starting Candy Crush over. Does this mean the achievements are gone too?

posted on Jun 14, 2016, 11:36 AM 0

9. AlikMalix unregistered

I liked gamecenter when it was introduced. There was a reason for it as it saved progress and connected people in multiplayer. Now lots of games rely on its own native servers, and come with their own set of achievements. But I'm curious how games like RR3 will track your friends - so you can see their driving (times shift mode) without Game Center as its vital for it to connect. Those that say they never used gamecenter - you have no clue how much lifting gamecenter still does in most of your games, automatically in the background. So for a gamer, I'm surprised that Apple is going away with it, vs just improve on it - maybe the devs asked for it since they probably prefer to rely on their own servers for matchmaking and game progress management.